Civil society green media

The fourth estate is dead

We have been able to read about the Greek crisis all summer now, but really is that the biggest crisis we face right now? What is of most public interest. Nope, of course not, what is Greece compared to the planet? I'm so fed up with lousy reporting on critical environmental news, last week several international and Swedish newspapers ran the story about “a new little ice age” heading our way. It so completely incorrect, since we are warming the planet, I am truly baffled how journalists could pick and run with this story.

And why are we not getting daily updates on the real environmental news, like: Arctic sea ice melting, the amount of icebergs calving off Greenland, oceans pH values, CO2 uptake in the world's forests, rising greenhouse gas emissions, reduction in fish stocks or the amount of chemicals and plastics we let our into the oceans??? The fourth estate is truly dead. Now we need bloggers, civil society and NGOs to spread the real stories about the state of the planet.

Long live civil society media

We need new “green” news sites, blogs and pages that can complement all the financial drivel in mainstream media. Many seem to believe that if we get more environmental news we will just lose interest, but that is not the case. Only by being fed daily with challenges and solutions for our degraded planet can we finally get the idea that it is a big deal, and that we have to deal with it now.

Today there is a lack of continuity that makes us relax and forget about the problems. But wait a minute, parts of west Antarctica is now in irreversible melt, that will add at least 1 meter of sea level rise! It will affect hundreds of million people especially in the developing world but no nation can escape the impacts. It is not “something happening over there”, climate change and biodiversity loss are global problems and affects all of us. When did you last see world leaders going forth and back trying to solve the planetary crisis?, like the politicians are now doing in Europe regarding the Greek crisis. Never, is the sad answer. Not even this critical year (2015) when global leaders are supposed to meet in Paris to negotiate a new climate deal that will determine all of our futures. Amazing, where is the political will? We as a civil society need to get more active and push our leaders, hold them accountable to promises and call them out when needed. If corporate media cannot handle it we will have to do it ourselves.